A grandad killed in a head-on collision with four other members of his family had been watching his eldest daughter perform on stage for the last time, an inquest heard.

Chester-le-Street grandparents Angela and David Cockburn, 48 and 49, their daughters Carley Ann, 21, and Bethany, 18, and two-year-old granddaughter Lacie Jade Stephenson, were all killed in a car crash on April 12, 2013.

The Nissan Primera Angela had been driving was involved in a head-on collision with a lorry on the A18 road near Laceby as the family returned to the North East from a dance competition in Skegness that day.

Speaking at the inquest into the deaths, son Dean, the only surviving member of the immediate family, said his sister Carley, 21, was due to retire from dancing.

He told the inquest: “He was going to watch her dance for the last time. That is why dad went.”

Dean said normally their mum Angela Cockburn, 49, drove her daughters to dance festivals throughout the country.

In tribute to his family who lived near Chester-le-Street, County Durham, Dean said his dad, a care home manager for Gateshead Council, normally stayed at home at weekends.

He told how his father had always wanted to be a boxer, but retired from the sport when his son was born in 1988.

He became a trained electrician and then changed his career to become a carer and later went on to become a care home manager.

He looked after a home for adults with learning difficulties and regularly took the service users to watch football.